In their recent press release, Florida-based Ulticlip claimed that they intended to “bring concealed carry into the 21st Century.” As far as we can tell, they’ve done a pretty good job of modernizing one of the integral components of many holsters: the belt clip. Check that. Calling it a “belt clip” might not be all that accurate since the Ulticlip allows something somewhat uncommon: CCW without a belt.

Company owner Randall Darby sent over some of his Ulticlips to check out, so we gave them a try on a few different holster types. UltiClips are designed to work with a variety of holster designs. Basically, if your holster has belt clips that attach by a screw or fit through a sleeve, the Ulticlip will likely work with it. Paddle style holsters and pocket holsters without clip might be able to be cobbled up to work with the Ulticlip but, by their nature, they probably won’t work as designed.

We did most of our testing on our EDCIWB rigs from Alien Gear and N82 Tactical. Our N82 testing was done on the Pro model holsters; although the Original and Original Tuckable models use a clip that fits into a leather sleeve with a notch for the rib to stick out of, the sleeve is too tight for the Ulticlip rib to fit through. We also took the Ulticlips for a spin on a couple other styles of holsters and let some gun-buddies try them out on their holsters to get opinions.

The Ulticlip makers claim three main benefits of the upgraded belt clip: “ultimate retention, ultimate concealment, and ultimate versatility.” Let’s take a look at how they do in reaching these three goals. Continue reading →

A Review of TALON Grips on GLOCK and KelTec Pistols

As any pistol shooter knows, having the proper grip on your firearm is important. An improper hold can not only lead to missing your mark but can also allow the pistol to move around, requiring a grip adjustment between shots, slide bite on your hand, or even jams – the last thing you want if you ever need to use your firearm in a defensive situation.

The goal of providing a solid purchase on a handgun is nothing new. Wood grips with checkering or other texturing have been around nearly as long as modern handguns themselves and the evolution of polymer framed pistols has seen (often unsuccessful) changes in the molded texture of the factory grip. However, given the properties of the materials from which the frames are made, there is only so much grip that texture can provide, and it is often a compromise between grip and comfort while carrying or shooting. Continue reading →

On the evening before opening day of the 2015 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Nashville, Tennessee – just weeks after the early rumors and official announcement – a small group of attendees was invited to the Nashville Armory for the official Glock 43 launch party. The GunLink team was among that group and we had a chance to see, handle, and shoot the new single-stack 9mm pistol before most people even see them show up at their gun shop. There isn’t much that can improve on shooting “free” ammo out of other people’s guns (and we took the opportunity to make two trips each through the firing queue with 3 mags on each round) – but being a brand-new pistol made it that much better.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed. On paper, the specs didn’t seem that ground breaking. It has roughly the same profile as a double-stack G26, albeit thinner, but with a significantly reduced capacity (6+1). The Glock representative at the event referred to it as basically a “Glock 26 Slim” (see the comparison below, left-to-right: G42, G43, G26) It is too big for pocket carry but too small for a high round count and, I thought, too small to be comfortable to shoot.

The G43 is a good example of why you cannot judge a book by its cover, or a pistol by its spec sheet. Continue reading →

Optics blocking the controls on a firearm isn’t a new problem. Shooters who have spent time behind a scoped lever- or break-action rifle are probably familiar with hammer extensions that let them manipulate the hammer when it is blocked by the scope. As the popularity of flattop AR-platform rifles has grown over the past decade or so, allowing optics and accessories to be mounted, this problem has manifested there as well.

A good, by-the-book overhand grip on the charging handle can easily be impeded by rail-mounted optics. Getting an index finger on the latch and pulling from one side might work if you can get to it, but it can also apply undue lateral stress on a stock charging handle designed for the overhand grip. If you are using your scoped AR for hunting in cooler weather, wearing gloves can add additional complications into the mix.

There are charging handles with extended latches, but they are often quite expensive and are overbuilt to solve problems that many users just don’t need to solve. That is why the Tactical Fast Pull from Pro-Defense caught our eye at SHOT Show 2015. The company founder was at the booth to show us the Tactical Fast Pull (shown above) and Tactical Fast Pull Pro. Following the show, he sent us the Pro kit to try it out for ourselves. Continue reading →

Last year, we wrote about our SHOT Show visit with MyCaseBuilder and how they make custom cases easy. The foam case inserts that they had in their booth and Steve’s big-screen demo both told a story about the quality and ease of creation of custom foam, but I wanted to get my hands on one to check it out for myself. There are myriad shapes and sizes of Pelican cases, OEM gun cases and other cases around GunLink HQ, but I thought that we should start small for our first custom case, so I got to work on designing some custom case from for a Pelican 1170 pistol case for transporting a Glock pistol (if you don’t already have a case, MyCaseBuilder can send your made-to-order foam in a brand new case).

The design tool is easy to use and is pre-populated with many existing shapes for various firearms, firearm accessories, electronics, camera equipment and more. The Glock 19 shape library includes shapes for the pistol and magazines, in various configurations, and with or without finger notches to make it easier to pull the items out of the form-fitting foam. For this case, I started with the G19 pistol with finger notches. I modified the shape with custom cut-outs to accommodate the pistol and sights with the slide partially rearward (so that it can be cased with a chamber flag inserted) as well as a threaded barrel. Continue reading →